


Through the Big, Loud Noise in the Sky

by sartiebodyshots



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/M, Living topside is hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-29
Updated: 2016-03-29
Packaged: 2018-05-29 23:48:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6399172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sartiebodyshots/pseuds/sartiebodyshots
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are loud noises coming from the sky and Sereda is not fond of it whatsoever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through the Big, Loud Noise in the Sky

Sereda tries not to jump as another loud clanging noise comes from the sky.  It sounds like battle, but there’s no army nearby.  Nobody else is reacting, not even when light crisscrosses across the sky, despite the fact that it’s night.  

The air feels weird, different in a way that she can’t quite identify.  It puts her on edge, and she grasps the edge of the log she’s sitting on with white knuckles.  

Her mabari, Valda, comes and rests his head on her knee, whimpering a little.  She can identify, except she has to keep it together.  The leader can’t be breaking down at what is, apparently, a normal occurrence.  

“It’s okay, boy,” Sereda whispers, prying a hand away from the log to stroke his fur.  “I wish you could talk.  You know what’s happening.”

That’s one of the things she hates about being topside.  Even the animals know more about what’s happening than she does.  Honestly, her only thing she’s an expert in, compared to everyone else, is darkspawn.  At least that’s important to what they’re doing, she guesses, but that’s little consolation when everything is shaking.

“My beautiful Grey Warden, you seem tense again,” Zevran says, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.  Ancestors, she hates how he does that, at least when she’s already on edge.

Sereda shrugs a little, trying to feign casualness.  She can feel how badly she’s failing, though.  Her eyes are wide and her smile is too tight.  

He’s looking at her with suspicion, and, of course, another loud crash comes from the sky right then.  She can’t help but shake as the adrenaline hits her system again.  To try to cover, she buries her face in Valda’s fur.  The soft strength is comforting, just for a moment, and her eyes are closed to miss the light from the sky.

Sereda can’t stop her body from shaking.  There’s no enemy to fight, and she feels like she has all this excess energy.  The overwhelming fear of the unknown doesn’t help.  Ancestors, she just wants the noise to stop. 

When Sereda looks up, Zevran is still standing there, watching her.  It makes her feel very vulnerable.  

“Do you want another of my Antivan massages?” Zevran asks.  “Either just a massage or something more, like last time.”

Sereda swallows hard.  They both had a good time the last time she invited him back to her tent, but she feels terrible right now.  Somehow, she doubts she’ll be able to make him feel good in this state.

She doesn’t trust her voice to speak, so she just shakes her head.  

Zevran sits next to her.  “The thunder and lightning is quite intense tonight, yes?”

Her eyes widen as she takes in the new information.  She knows what the noise and the light is called now.  At least she knows as much as the dog.  Hopefully she doesn’t forget, like she’s forgotten the names of so many things since coming up here.

“I don’t think Valda likes it,” Sereda finally says, hating the waver in her voice.  She doesn’t sound like she should be in charge of anything. 

Valda whimpers again and Sereda scratches behind her ear comfortingly.  When another hand joins hers, she looks up at Zevran in surprise.  

“I would not want Valda to be scared,” Zevran says.  “The thunder is loud and unpleasant, but ultimately harmless.”

“It sounds like armies fighting each other,” Sereda says plaintively.  

Zevran’s fingers brush over hers as they stroke through Valda’s fur, and she feels calmer for just a moment.  “It’s just the storm letting us know that it’s nearby.  I think we’ll have a heavy rain tonight.”

Sereda inhales, watching their hands.  They’re just… so mismatched.  His are so long and thin, and she’s seen firsthand how nimble they are.  Hers are so short and stubby, and comparatively clumsy.  Not to mention, her hand is shaking right now, while his is perfectly steady.  

As much as she enjoys it when it rains, she can tell that tonight will be different.  The rains she’s seen have mostly been gentle.  Somehow, she can’t imagine that rain accompanying such noise will be anything but loud and overwhelming and painful.  

“Good to know,” Sereda says, shuddering again as another crash of thunder rolls through her.  “I think that I’m going to try to sleep a little.”  

She can’t keep sitting here or else she’s going to fall apart in front of Zevran and everyone else.  Not that they’re looking at her now, but if she has a freak out, they will be, and then they won’t trust her to lead, and then-

Sereda realizes that Zevran has said something else, but she didn’t catch it over the sounds of her own heavy breathing.  So she just jumps to her feet and leans over to Valda.

“Come on, Valda,” Sereda says, avoiding looking at Zevran.  “Goodnight, Zevran.”

Bringing her mabari into her tent is very Ferelden, she knows, but she also doesn’t want to be alone.  

It’s a little better in the tent.  That there’s a definite ceiling helps.  While the sky is pretty and she’s slowly getting used to it, sometimes it still terrifies her.  The sky goes up and up and forever, and sometimes she believes the old dwarven tales that you can fall up into it.  

As the rain starts to fall, Sereda buries her face in Valda’s fur.  He’s whimpering and they’re both shaking from fear.  She whispers comforting words to him, even though her voice is gummy from almost crying, but they’re really to herself.

Sereda has lost her home, her family, has been tossed in the middle of a political battle that she does not understand, and now she’s cowering in a tent because this whole new world is too big and loud.  She prides herself on never being powerless, despite everything, but she feels so powerless now and it makes her want to give up on everything.  It’s foolish to stand against the literal army arrayed against them.  She’s just one woman.  One small, broken woman who couldn’t even keep one brother from killing the other.  

There’s an insistent scratching at her tent flap, and she suddenly hears a, “Hello, are you awake, my beautiful Grey Warden?”

Sereda pries herself off Valda and wipes at her face just in case she started crying without noticing.  She opens the tent flap, surprised to see a soaking wet Zevran standing there in the rain.

Without thinking, she pulls him into the tent.  It apparently startles him and he makes an oof noise as he lands hard.  

“What are you doing here?” Sereda asks.

“There’s a slight leak in my tent, and Morrigan seems unfortunately adverse to sharing a tent with me, for reasons I cannot fathom,” Zevran says with a shrug.  “Already, you and Valda seem much more hospitable.”

Sereda tries to force a smile.  It’s not like she’s going to force him out into the rain.

“Valda is still a little skittish, but if that doesn’t bother you, then you can stay,” Sereda says.

“Perhaps I could soothe our friend,” Zevran says, stroking his fur.  “I have been told that animals find me very calming.  It’s a useful skill to cultivate, I’ve found.”

“And when exactly have you cultivated this skill?” Sereda asks.  She wants him to keep talking so that she doesn’t have to.  Not to mention, she always enjoys his stories.

Zevran laughs gently, and she’s jealous that he’s so relaxed and carefree.  That he’s not terrified by the noises outside.  “A surprising amount of marks had guard dogs.  One time, I was sneaking out of a manor, and, of course I attracted the attention of a vicious guard dog.  She was even bigger than Valda, if you can believe it.”

Valda growls a little, and Zevran coos at him.  “But you’re much scarier, I promise.”

“Did you escape unscathed?” Sereda asks once Valda has settled back down.

“At first, I led her on a merry chase, but I took a wrong turn and ended up in a dead end.  Of course, I could have fought off the guard dog, but I didn’t want to hurt the poor dog unless I had to.  So, I stopped running, whistled softly, and held out a piece of meat I  _ had _ been planning to save for dinner that night.  It took about five minutes of careful ear scratching and petting, but soon we were best friends,” Zevran says with a careless laugh.  “She became instrumental in my final escape.  I pretended to be her caretaker and we walked right out the front gate together.”

“You had better not try that with Valda,” Sereda says, trying to sound lighthearted despite her tension.  

“Do not fear, my lovely Grey Warden.  I have sworn you an oath of loyalty, and I have no intention of breaking it,” Zevran says.  “And, I do not believe that he would leave you, even for the finest meat in Ferelden.  He likes being with you.”

That makes Sereda smile and she rubs Valda’s flank.  “Is that right?  You like me, Valda?”

Valda woofs at her in response and settles his head in her lap.  

“See?  I told you,” Zevran says.  

“I should know better than to doubt you,” Sereda says.  She’s feeling almost calm when the loudest peal of thunder yet rings out.  Now, she can barely breathe.  “So, what happened next?  With, uh, your new dog friend?”  

Her heart is racing again and the fear is making tears start to well in her eyes again and she needs to focus on something else.

Zevran starts to talk, and honestly, she has no idea if any of the insane adventures he’s describing are true, but that doesn’t matter.  His voice is soothing, smoother than anything she’s ever heard.  It’s that smoothness that she pays attention to more than anything else, certainly more than the actual words he’s saying.  

She also watches the way his hand strokes Valda’s fur in a steady rhythm.  There is one similarity between their hands, even if she can’t see it right now; they both have hands heavily callused from wielding their weapons, one in each hand.  It’s a good similarity, she decides.

Ever so slowly, her heartbeat returns to its normal rate.  Her body still feels taut, but it’s relaxing, at least enough that she feels capable of looking at him without shattering.

Now, she can watch the way his lips form the words and the rise and fall of his chest.  How when he chuckles, his eyes slide shut just a little bit.  The way he changes the tilt of his head and the way he holds himself with such ease.

Of course, that makes it impossible to ignore the way that he’s watching her.  The way that he does that makes her feel intensely vulnerable.  She hadn’t even felt this vulnerable when she was naked in front of him.  That had been a massage and sex with no expectations for the future.  This is something more intimate in ways that she doesn’t even understand.  

It scares her more than thunder and more than the sky, except it’s impossible to be afraid with all his attention focused on her.

Suddenly, he stops and looks up to the ceiling of the tent.  She’s worried that he’s going to be mad at her for not listening, but there’s a sly smile on his face.

“Silence, at last,” Zevran says.  “I think the storm has passed.”

Sereda looks up in surprise; she had been completely wrapped up in Zevran.  “I hadn’t noticed.”

“Ah, you are much braver than I,” Zevran says, stretching a little and somehow ending up with his arm resting on her shoulder.  “I’ve always found thunder unnerving.”

“You have?” Sereda asks.  

“Of course!” Zevran says.  “It’s loud, comes from the sky, and the Chantry has some dreadful explanations for it that have stuck with me.  I am very impressed that you are as composed as you are, considering you must not have grown up with thunder or lightning.”

Sereda strokes Valda’s fur again; she hadn’t even realized that she had stopped.  “Who could be scared with Valda around?”

Zevran chuckles and his hand joins hers.  “Perhaps, you would let me stay where he can keep me safe, even though the storm has passed.”

Sereda pretends to consider it before nodding.  “Of course.”

Zevran’s face lights up.  “Thank you, my dear Warden.”

And that’s how she ends up sandwiched between Zevran and Valda, his arm wrapped tight around her and her arm thrown around Valda.  Zevran’s chin is resting lightly on the top of her head.  Between him and the mabari fur in her nose, she’s sure that she’s the most secure person in all Thedas.

She knows that Zevran probably lied a significant amount to make her feel better tonight, and normally she hates that kind of thing.  But the thunder had been so terrifying that she couldn’t breathe.

Now she’s breathing, somehow in sync with the both of them.  

Growing up a princess in Orzammar had never left room for friends or really loving someone else.  It was too dangerous because everyone had more agendas than she could count.  Gorim, her brothers, and her father had been the only people she had trusted.  She hadn’t even trusted the men and women she had slept with in Orzammar.  They had just known that if they gossiped about sleeping with the princess, it would be more trouble than it was worth.

But suddenly, she’s meeting all kinds of new people, and despite her reservations, she’s slowly coming to trust and care for them.  One of the nice things about Valda is that he, at least, has no ulterior motives.

Of course, if she’s considering ulterior motives, no one has more potential ulterior motives than Zevran.  She’s never met someone quite so upfront about the fact that, yes, he tried to kill her.  While she believes that he’s earnest about not going back to the Crows, it would be idiocy to trust him.

And yet, he’s curled around her back after soothing her completely.

There’s something so different about how he feels about Zevran.  She’s glad she’s not a princess anymore.  If she was still a princess, Sereda would have to run far, far away from Zevran and all the complicated happy-soothed feelings that he gives her.  She has no words to describe it properly, but whatever it is that she’s feeling, she knows that she can explore it, at least as far as Zevran is willing to let her.  

She can’t wait.


End file.
